PICTURE PERFECT CORPSE

When your life is totally trashed, it’s time to stand up and take charge.

Kiki Lowenstein has just shot and killed the man who murdered her husband. He had already wounded her and a friend and was strangling her mother-in-law at the time, but still, she feels guilty. Kiki’s own head wound was minor and her unborn baby unharmed. Her longtime boyfriend, Chad Detweiler, indicates that he’s finally ready to divorce his drug-addicted wife, Brenda, and marry her. Then fresh disasters strike. Brenda is found shot dead, and Detweiler is arrested. Brenda’s well-connected father, who holds the debt on the Detweiler family farm, is determined to get his son-in-law convicted of murder. All the while, Kiki’s friend Dodie, her senior partner in their crafts shop, is dying of cancer. Kiki is stuck with her uncaring, self-absorbed mother, and her daughter Anya is obviously hiding something. A friend at the shop helps her retain a shark of a lawyer for Chad who works pro bono but insists that Kiki stay out of the investigation. Still, the intrepid sleuth not only comes up with a few good leads, but finds time to investigate the accidental death of Dodie’s son after one of his high school friends blurts out that she caused his death. Accused of whining by one of her friends, Kiki realizes that it’s up to her to get her life back while she still has one.

Fans of this scrapbooking series (Ready, Scrap, Shoot, 2012, etc.) won’t be surprised that sorely beset Kiki doesn’t shine as a detective this time. But they’ll be drawn to her ongoing personal struggles and her take on social problems, in this case self-mutilation.